Check Out Lori Poag’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Poag.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When we got married in 2013, my husband Hezekiah and I wanted a candy bar station for the guests at our wedding. Back then, this kind of thing was just coming on to the wedding scene, and it was something that we were both drawn to. Unfortunately, no one in the area offered this type of service in the events industry, so we just had to go out and find candies that matched our wedding colors, jars to hold these candies and seek the assistance of our friends and family to serve guest at our reception.

At the end of the day, it was such a headache to pull off and we REALLY wish we could have hired someone to handle the whole thing. After our wedding day, we had a bunch of equipment and supplies left over. Instead of getting rid of them, we decided to keep everything to start a business and name it Something BARowed Candy Bar Stations to help other couples in need. Word of our business services quickly spread. In 2015 we served up the SWEETS at 62 events we also had our son that year, needless to say, it was a very busy year!

As our business grew we started to get a lot of requests to do children’s events, which we found to be somewhat difficult given the fact of how rowdy and messy they can be. So in 2017, we decided to open a kid’s party venue, where we could host birthday parties and have the kids do culinary crafts with candy, cookies, and cupcakes for their activities! Turns out it was a hit, and the parents loved the idea too since they didn’t have to deal with cleaning up a mess in their homes.

Our party venue also doubles as a candy store which kids (and some adults) absolutely love as well.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Things were smooth until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Once social distancing and mass gathering ordinances were put in place by the governor our ability to create candy bars for events and host events at our space downtown was taken away, It got so bad that in May of 2020, we knew that we might have to close our doors for good due to the surmounting overhead cost of running a business with no customers.

Fortunately, we started noticing what the restaurants were doing to survive. We recognized the success that restaurants were having with their take-out service during the pandemic, so we searched for a suitable take-out item within our existing products. Believe it or not, the answer was on our shelf, staring at us in our face the whole time. Gourmet popcorn!

Beginning with six flavors and eventually increasing to more than thirty flavors of popcorn not only saved Something BARowed but our popcorn sales started bypassing our pre-pandemic space rental/candy bar station income. We were even featured on Beyoncé’s website and received a $10,000 grant along with other black-owned businesses. After this, orders started pouring in and we were also fortunate to be asked to travel to Atlanta and create a custom popcorn bar for hip hop celebrities T.I. and Tiny Harris.

Popcorn opened a new side of sweet events. We started creating mini bags with customizable stickers that said things like ‘thanks for popping by,’ which allowed families to hand out favors during drive-thru celebrations and even to send to friends and families to let them know that they are thinking about them. These became very popular and even helped us increase party bookings in our event space this year.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We are 3 businesses in 1. A kid’s party venue providing candy-themed games/activities. A gourmet popcorn, candy & sweet treat shop. We also serve up the sweets with candy/dessert bars for celebratory events (weddings, graduations, birthdays, showers, etc.).

Have you seen our dessert bars, candy bars, and popcorn bars? They speak for themselves. We have the ability to color coordinate our candies and treats to match your event theme. It’s hard for other businesses in our industry to compete LOL!

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
We are absolutely nothing without our awesome staff! Our shop manager Brittany in particular holds down the day-to-day operations so we have the freedom to create and attract new clientele. We appreciate her so much!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.SomethingBARowed.com
• Instagram: @SomethingBARowed
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomethingBARowed
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/somthingbarowed
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/something-barowed-greensboro

Image Credits
Still Shots Photography